I don’t know how Jesse Grosjean did it, but somehow WriteRoom for iOS is syncing at an unbelievable rate with Dropbox. It’s as if it is constantly syncing after every keystroke. It’s syncing faster than Simplenote, which would make it the first Dropbox based text editor on iOS that could compete with sync on Simplenote.
To check it, I turned on Growl to notify me of Dropbox changes. As I wrote in WriteRoom on my iPad, I could see Prowl on my iPad flashing every second or two, indicating an updated file. In that interval, WriteRoom had pushed a change to Dropbox and Dropbox pushed the update to my iMac and Growl pushed a notification to me via Prowl. What is this magic and how does Jesse do it?
Kudos to WriteRoom for really figuring out Dropbox sync.
Today my family celebrated another spring together, or as some spiritual folks call it, Easter. We had a great time. Unlike the Easters of my childhood, today we shared it with family all over the country and my daughter will have videos of the entire affair when she is my age.
Grandma was able to join us over FaceTime. From the first sleepy steps out of bed to the delightful giggles of a three year old discovering a basket of goodies, Grandma could be with us. Between my wife and I, we captured an hour of HD video with our iPhones. A dozen or so photos are already twirling across our television connected to the AppleTV and PhotoStream.
While the geeks have inherited the earth, average families are enjoying the fruits of their labor. All of this cold glass and chrome is providing us with ways to capture and share some of our most intimate experiences with people we care about. My technology makes my life better in ways I didn’t plan on.
I was a huge Filemaker user back in the mid-nineties. I built chemistry databases on Filemaker and truly enjoyed it. The application has felt stagnant for the past couple of releases and I had lost track of how it was evolving.
Filemaker 12 is out and it looks like they took all of the polish from Bento, added the power of Filemaker and threw in an iOS app (additional purchase). They’ve definitly piqued my interest again.
This post is only going to be interesting to someone that lives in plain text. More specifically, someone that creates and maintains a large number of plain text files.
I killed Simplenote awhile ago. They’re working on a fix for the problem, but in the meantime I had the “opportunity” to look for Dropbox-centric options. There were few apps that could handle a large collection of notes.
Requirements
I have some minimum requirements for an iOS text editor. Luckily, Brett made it easy to figure out what apps to focus on. I already owned all the apps that met my requirements, so it was easy to reinstall and test.
My core requirements for a new writing app are as follows.
Dropbox support (obviously)
Semi-automatic sync with Dropbox. I don’t want to remember to tap a sync button.
Global search across all notes and text
TextExpander Support
iPhone and iPad version available
User defined notes folder in Dropbox
Optional: custom keyboard row
The Apps
Only a few apps passed the initial test of syncing my collection of notes. Here are the finalists.
Rather than call out apps that failed, I’ll say that I tested every app from Brett’s list that satisfied my core requirements. Only the above apps did not crash while using the app with a large collection of notes.
Recommendations
I was pretty happy with all three apps. I’ve used Nebulous Notes for awhile but both Notesy and WriteRoom could easily replace it. The search in WriteRoom is particularly good.
As Ryan on Twitter pointed out, WriteRoom supports TextExpander in the search field.
@macdrifter curious, have you tried writeroom?It has full text search.I think you would like it.Does TE in searchbar, SN doesn’t :-(
I’m not a fan of the grotesquely large margins in WriteRoom, but it’s an overall great app that I had lost track of. I tried to use it many moons ago but it did not support Dropbox back then so I deleted it and moved on.
WriteRoom also provides a customizable keyboard row. It’s not as sophisticated as Nebulous Notes, but it it’s a nice option, especially for the common Markdown characters.
Notesy is also superb and thankfully provides an option to use narrow margins. The global search in Notesy has an additional option to narrow result to only notes modified in the last week. This is a welcome option when dealing with hundreds of notes.
Notesy does not provide the additional keyboard row for entering Markdown, but neither did Simplenote.
My faithful Nebulous Notes is showing some deficiencies when compared to Notesy and WriteRoom. In particular, Nebulous does not offer a global search function. It wins out for overall writing experience though.
Writing Modes
I use NVAlt on my Mac. It’s my goto application for quick note creation and locating old notes. But when I sit down to write a long post, I generally work in BBEdit.
On iOS, I have a similar workflow. I’ve used Simplenote for quick note creation and locating previous notes. When I want to do long form writing I work in Nebulous Notes.
If I ever need to replace Simplenote, cough, I would likely choose either Notesy or WriteRoom. Both apps provide quick search and excellent tools for creating short notes. Importantly, neither app has crashed on my rather large collection of notes.
I’ve written before about the subtle changes I’ve witnessed in large corporate IT sensibilities. What was once subtle acknowledgement of Apple is becoming an awkward embrace.
Exchange
Apple’s full support of Microsoft Exchange has meant many executive and mid-level employees have been able to access corporate email and they could easily configure it themselves. iOS Exchange support does not require a technical understanding of what Exchange email and calendars are. A typical user can connect and sync with Exchange with little assistance. That’s important. It means there is little IT burden for device setup. There is also little overhead for ongoing support.
Exchange support in iOS is quite impressive and makes Outlook tolerable for me. Sure, I get my email and calendars. But if I flag an email in Outlook, it’s flagged in the iOS Mail app. The “Search on Server” feature works flawlessly and across all Outlook server folders.
The Exchange Tasks integration is well done in iOS. Marking an email as a task in Outlook, automatically syncs the task to the iOS Reminders app with the entire email as a note.
Multiple Outlook Task lists sync with Reminders app. This allows me to use a rudimentary list of projects with tasks. While I tend not to use these tasks long term, it is a very convenient way to get my task list home for transcribing into OmniFocus.
It also works the other way too. I can add Outlook tasks through Siri. I can move tasks from my Exchange list to my OmniFocus list right from my iPhone. Overall, the Exchange experience on iOS feels like any other integrated service. It works.
Connectivity
I’ve also seen a change in the attitude toward corporate WiFi. For many companies, generally accessible WiFi is taboo. It’s a great big broadcasted target that leaks outside of the conference room walls on to the streets. It’s a tempting vulnerability that’s not necessary when everyone plugs into an Ethernet cable.
iOS has changed that model.1 I’m hearing about WiFi deployments inside traditionally Blackberry-connected companies. These new access points aren’t directed at laptops, they are specifically being setup to support employee purchased iPads and iPhones. It’s common place to see a conference disgorge a room full of people carrying iOS devices. These are not company purchased devices, they are personal devices that IT is supporting. That’s a new concept. Only a few years ago, it was laughable to expect a large corporate IT group to support a personal computing device.
Remote Access
Employees are traveling with iPads and asking why they need to shlep a laptop around just to remote into a meeting. Why take 15 lbs of computer hardware when an iPad has email and a web browser?
I’m now hearing about services like GoToMeeting and GoToMyPC being adopted specifically to support iOS devices. I’m not talking about iOS for sales people traveling the world. I’m talking about average desk jockeys that want to connect from home in the evenings and weekends. These are people that may never have asked about remote connections from a home Windows machine. The iPad is empowering average people to do more than they ever felt comfortable trying on Windows.
Safety
Something that I’m just starting to appreciate is that people in security actually like iOS. It’s predictable and understandable. The AppStore apps are generally very safe. For all of the press, jail breaking is very rare among average users.
Part of connecting to a corporate exchange server is enabling the remote wipe feature and enforcing a passcode lock on an iOS device. Even personal devices can be wiped by IT if they are connected to corporate infrastructure.
Apple didn’t need to push it’s way into the Enterprise. They got the employees to carry them in and then made it so there were few real reasons for IT managers to keep them out.
I say iOS specifically, because I know of at least one company that has excluded Android devices because they are “open”. The devices are far more variable and the AppStore is relatively unregulated. There’s a serious concern about nefarious apps wreaking havoc on internal networks. Walled gardens are pretty nice sometimes. ↩
I like OmniOutliner for iPad1 quite a bit. It is a truly unique and powerful outlining tool. But I’m tired of waiting for better document management. Manually uploading and downloading documents to a webdav is no longer sufficient. Having a flat view to many dozens of documents is no longer tenable.2
CarbonFin Outliner
CarbonFin Outliner is $5 for iPad and $3 for iPhone.
If you have used CarbonFin Outliner in the past, then I may have little of value to offer you in this post. This is not a generic review with feature check boxes of a four year old application. This is a review from a user that loves OmniOutliner but also wants ubiquitous capture and syncing. CarbonFin is the original outliner for iOS. I used it for three years before OmniOutliner came out but as OmniOutliner becomes less useful for me, CarbonFin has come back into my app rotation.
This was my goto outliner before OmniOutliner. It served me well for plain text outlines. It was a workhorse on my iPhone and a pleasure on the iPad. But I was lured away by OmniOutliner’s support for formatting and adding images to notes. Those are still missing from CarbonFin Outliner but Dropbox syncing and web access trump those missing options for many of my notes. The recent addition of Dropbox support lured me back in. I’m fickle like that.
Outlining
At it’s core, CarbonFin is text. It’s like using Markdown for outlines. I just write. I add items and nest them as appropriate. There are few knobs and dials to tweak. But that’s ok for most of my quick outlines.
By no means is CarbonFin a complete alternative to OmniOutliner. OmniOutliner provides powerful features like multiple columns, row formatting, and summary rows. The feature that makes OmniOutliner truly powerful is the ability to paste a sketch or image into a note field.
With all of those features stacked against CarbonFin, it is still an excellent outlining app. CarbonFin’s strengths are in it’s ability to handle a large number of outlines and syncing them across multiple platforms. CarbonFin is a simple outliner but it has enough flexibility to stand in for OmniOutliner for the majority of my work.
Similar to OmniOutliner, CarbonFin provides plenty of room for notes in an outline. Each row can contain any amount of text as a note.
Outlines are easily created with the onscreen buttons for indenting levels. If you are familiar with OmniOutliner, then CarbonFin will feel very familiar. Rows can be moved up or down with their child elements. Sliding left on a row offers to delete it. There is also a tool palette to collapse, copy, cut or paste rows. Everything that I expect in a mature iOS outliner is there.
Options
While there are some global application settings, each outline is treated independently in CarbonFin.
Each outline can be configured with a variety of tags, as well as to sync through the CarbonFin Web site or Dropbox. The option panel also provides an option to share the outline with another person. This works very much like Simplenote sharing.
Tasks
CabonFin has taken an interesting approach to outlines. They encourage using outlines like task lists. Completed tasks combine to provide an overall view of parent task completion.
I don’t use CarbonFin this way, but it looks good and could be a basic task or project management tool.
Search
I can search within a single outline or search across all outlines. The search term is not highlighted in the outline, but it does filter the list of outlines to just those that have a match.
There is no search option in the web application. That’s an unfortunate omission, but it’s hard to complain since the webapp is so well done.
Organizing
There are no folders in CarbonFin. However, there is a tag system that provides a quick and easy way to group outlines together. For example, assigning multiple outlines to a common project name, I can see all related documents. This is very similar to Simplenote’s approach to note organization and it works well.
There’s also a built-in “Archived” tag that can be used to hide old outlines without removing them. By combining tags, I’ve created complex project outlines that can easily be broken up into individual project milestone files or logically separated list of requirements. I’ve also used the approach to group notes from a single conference but keep each session as a separate file.
Syncing
CarbonFin is a quick in-and-out app for me. Whenever I need to make a list, CarbonFin fits the bill. But it’s not a dead-end. The new Dropbox support opens up a whole new level of data transportability.
CarbonFin has previously relied on their own custom syncing solution. It works reliably and is fast. The latest 3.0 release included Dropbox support.
The first step is to set an outline to sync through Dropbox. There are some features that are lost when not using the CarbonFin syncing. First and foremost is the loss of access through the webapp. Secondly, some of the timestamp functions are lost. I consider this imaterial to my workflow. It does seem odd that there is not a dual sync option. In my uneducated opinion, syncing a single document through both services would provide the best of both worlds. Unfortunately that is not an option.
Next, I setup GoodReader to sync with the Outliner folder in Dropbox. I don’t care for the Dropbox iOS app. I prefer GoodReader for my core data. I create a GoodReader sync folder and sync with the Outliner folder that CarbonFin creates in Dropbox.
CarbonFin syncing files as OPML format. That’s the ideal format for moving information between OmniOutliner, CarbonFin and iThoughts HD. Only the text is maintained between these transfers (i.e. no images from OmniOutliner or Emoji from iThoughts HD).
This workflow means I can now round trip from OmniOutliner to Dropbox and back. It’s awkward and uncomfortable but it works.
From GoodReader, I can open the document in OmniOutliner.
Notice that even the notes from CarbonFin are preserved in the OPML.
After working in OmniOutliner, I open the document in CarbonFin and sync back to Dropbox.
I also have the option to make a stop over in iThoughts HD at any time. iThoughts HD provides Dropbox syncing too. I’ve used that as a bridge for OmniOutliner in the past.
Other
CarbonFin provides an excellent webapp for working with outlines from the desktop. An account is free and there is no monthly access fee.
All outline features are available through the web. Check marks, indentation controls, notes, export and import are all fully realized features in the web app. It is rather impressive that it is free with the purchase of the app.
Fully editable outlines can also be shared with someone by email. Clicking on the link in the email takes them right into the webapp for editing. That’s a neat feature but I don’t really have a use for it. I’m antisocial.
Finally, CarbonFin has another great feature that OmniOutliner will not offer: TextExpander support. I love TE on iOS and it’s great to have it in an outliner. Adding dates and notes are easy with TE.
All AppStore links are affiliate links. If you buy something through the link, I get a very small kickback. ↩
This post is not to bash OmniOutliner for iOS. It is an impressive app with powerful features. The Omni Group have mentioned work on a universal syncing solution that may come to OmniOutliner in the future. Sync is hard and I know they will make it great. I need sync now. I also have not seen any signs that they will offer a better solution to organize a large number of outlines. ↩
Right or wrong, I use the AppStore ratings when I buy an app. There are some developers, that I don’t need to see their ratings, I’ll just buy their apps. But that is a vanishingly small percentage of developers on the AppStore. For the rest, ratings matter.
When I’m shopping for an app, there are several things that contribute to my buying decisions.
You get what you pay for
I would rather pay for an app than to adopt a free app that gets abandoned. Or, worse, to see ads in the app. I might try a free version but most of the time, I just spend the couple of bucks on the app. If the app only has an ad or In-App-Purchase business model, then it’s really not for me.
The flip side is that if I pay for an App, then an update should not remove features or substantially downgrade what I bought. If you want to see a lot of pissed off customers, follow the WeatherBug model. I barely tolerate that kind of business model from AT&T and Verizon, and they’re providing a core piece of my technology.
3 stars or better
If an app has less than three stars I look more closely at the developer’s other apps and what the reviewers are saying. If it has five stars I don’t look as closely. For good or ill, reviews matter. A dozen one star reviews complaining about broken features are a warning I can’t ignore.
While I understand that there are a lot of bad reviewers, there are also a lot of bad apps. I have limited time to find a good one. When I search the AppStore, I often filter apps by star ratings. My default is 3 stars.
Get a site, hippie
I look for a developer’s website. Most shovel-ware developers don’t even bother making a site. I also look to see if the site has a support contact list. I rarely contact support, but if an app starts messing with my Dropbox data, I will certainly want to talk to a developer. If I really like the app, I’ll also want to help make it better by providing constructive feedback and kudos for nice work. A Web site is that extra bit of professionalism that tells me a developer is taking their app seriously and I can expect the app to be updated over time.
Does this smell expired to you?
I look at the date it last received an update. If an app has not been updated in three months, I am far less likely to buy it. Nothing is ever bug free. If they haven’t bothered with even a bug fix in over three months I assume the app is being abandoned. Of course, this is a grey area. Some apps have minimal features or are close to feature complete. They usually get fewer updates. But if they have not updated since the last OS release, it’s probably never going to get an update.
Nickels and Dimes
I hate In App Purchases. I’d rather pay full price and get more features than I need. I don’t want to buy an app specifically designed to force me to buy more pieces to complete the feature set. I wouldn’t buy a puzzle with in-puzzle purchases. Just make a good app and I will buy it.
I look to see if an app has a list of in-app-purchases. If it does, I almost always move on. If it’s a kids app, I definitely move on. I will not EVER buy a kids app that has an in-app purchase available.
I realize that IAP can be done right, but it rarely is. Most of the time it makes the app feel cheap.
Show your money maker
I look at the screen shots. I assume that the developer is showing what makes their app valuable. If they are showing a splash screen in their screenshots, I’m probably not going to buy it. The AppStore screenshots and summary are like an elevator pitch. It should hit the top five features of the app. It’s O.K. if there is only one screen shot if that shows the best the app has to offer. This also goes back to the developers site. Most good apps include additional screenshots or demo videos on the app’s web page.
Summary pages are also a good opportunity to up sell me while I’m paying attention. I am very likely to browse around if the demos are good and the summary is compelling. I regularly click through on the list of other apps by the developer if the app looks good. I’m a consumer. It’s kind of what I do. I buy stuff I don’t need based on good marketing.
MindMeister is having a sale for the next five days. The iPad app is free for five days and a MindMeister account is 25% off their normal pricing. A MindMeister account is required to use the app.
I still greatly prefer iThoughts HD but MindMeister provides web access to mind maps which is very convenient.
My most common use for Siri is creating lists in the Reminders app. My wife and I share a list titled “Groceries”. This has replaced the pen and paper stuck to the front of the refrigerator.
I just realized that Siri will remember the most recently used Reminders list when adding items consecutively.1 So in one session, I start by declaring the name of the list but after that I can just add items without the list name.
Now I can just walk around the kitchen and add items to the shopping list like this:
“Add hot sauce to my Groceries list”
“Add jalapeños”
“Add sardines”
“Add Pepto-Bismol”
Siri only has a very-short term memory. Once the screen goes to sleep, she forgets the list I was using. I think she had some sort of head trauma.
This may not be new, but it’s new to me and I like it. ↩
This might be the best year yet for people that like good, but niche, discussions about all kinds of geeky stuff. The 5by5 network just about took over my Instacast list in 2011 and now Mule Radio is coming on strong too. Not a day goes by that I don’t get something new and interesting (and sometimes hilarious) to listen to.
It kind of feels like Apple is missing the boat when it comes to podcast functionality in iOS. I’d love a single app across iOS, OS X and AppleTV to sync playlists and play position for each podcast.
Here are a few of my favorite new audio podcasts from newest to less new:
The universal app Wolfram Alpha received an update today. That may be one of the most boring sentences I will write this week but it’s more interesting than it sounds.
The app now supports image input. Either snap a new image or grab one from the camera roll:
The app will automatically process the image to produce variations like this:
That’s pretty neat.
But wait!
Grab an image of some text with an iPhone:
Perform a Wolfram search with the image and “OCR” and get this:
I love Instacast for iOS. I no longer sync podcasts with iTunes. It’s a waste of time and disk space. If you are unaware, Instacast is podcast player that also downloads and syncs over iCloud between iOS devices. It’s the Podcast player Apple should have made. Unfortunately there is no Mac version.
When I want to listen to (or even watch) a podcast on my Mac, I still use Instacast though. Here’s the setup:
I don’t have anything smart to say about The New iPad specs or capabilities so I will save you those meaningless opinions.
But a brief Twitter exchange with Michael Schechter got me thinking about the significance of iOS in general. Each generation gets their moment to be remembered. We have the Silent Generation of the depression, the Greatest Generation that fought the Nazis, The Generation of Love, Generation X (my generation), and now Generation Y.
As time gives me greater perspective, these generations blur together but remain defined by major social milestones. The Greatest Generation defined honor and the American Dream. Generation X is the first generation with home computers but Generation Y is the first generation with global communities available over the Internet. What’s next?
My daughter is three years old. I firmly believe that iOS will mark a singular social milestone for my daughters generation. She will be the first generation with ubiquitous and easily understood computing devices. Whatever your perspective on the Android iOS disagreements, it’s difficult to argue that the iOS release didn’t coincide with a shift in computing.
The Retina display continues this unstoppable move to private computing.1. My child will never know pixels. She will not remember a time when computer displays were not photo realistic and easily manipulated. She will live in a world where computing devices are part of everyday life considered with as much reverence as a light switch.
I bought the new iPad yesterday. I appreciate the transition I’m privileged enough to experience. This is like the television revolution of the early 50′s but I get to participate this time. I’m damned well not going to miss it if I can afford it.
iOS devices are even more personal than the PC. There’s one account. It’s tough to share one screen (except with AirPlay). Each iOS device really belongs to one person. ↩
Following up on my article about Readability, I’ve decided to do something that costs me some dough but puts my money where my mouth is. I like Instapaper. I think it serves an important purpose. So I am going to give away 3 copies of Instapaper for iOS, out of my own pocket.1 Nice people have donated money to this site, so I’m giving some back.2
If you want a copy of Instapaper, then give me your opinion of these time-shifting reader services in the comments to this post. Use your real email address when you register, so I can gift the app to you.
The Rules
I’ll only give away 3 copies. I’ll pick the recipients by Sunday, March 11th. I can only read English. I can’t send an iTunes gift to an anonymous commenter. I won’t spam you or give out your email.
You don’t have to agree with me, you just need to be coherent and considerate.
THIS OFFER HAS ENDED. THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING.
Or at least I’m going to try. I’m just going to do an iTunes App gift to three people. I may screw it up. ↩
You didn’t really think I drank that much beer did you? Ok, I do. ↩
